Springtime in the Rockies
by Pyromaniac 55
Summary: Wanna get away? Too bad! No matter where you go, theres a zombie right around the corner. [Note: this story was previously under the name Vacation: RE Style]


An Undead's Favorite Vacation Spot By Pyromaniac 55  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of this unfortunately.  
  
There was a brisk air blowing into their hotel room from the window. Leon felt the cool breeze and opened his eyes to a bright spring sun. He rose out of bed and walked to the balcony. It had been a long night and he was happy it was over. The couple next door to them was laughing and yelling all night. Leon often checked during the night to see if Claire or Jill was awake. Neither of them ever was. He looked out to the giant valley the town of Aspen was in. He loved getting up to the view of the lush, kelly colored evergreen trees. The entire valley was green except for a few sparse patches where a tree had been struck by lightning or set ablaze by a careless camper. The smell of smoke still drifted in from far away forest fires. So peaceful compared what had happened a few months ago.  
  
Jill woke up after hearing Leon get up from the small cot between her and Claire's double beds. She did her daily routine of making black coffee for her and Leon. Today he smelled it and came in to greet her. "Good morning" Leon said with a smile on his face. "Ha! Doesn't look like you had a good one." Jill scoffed. He went to the mirror and saw he had dark bags under his eyes. "Yea. The couple next door were drinking or something last night. Didn't you hear them?" He asked surprised, rolling his eyes. "Well, I'm sorry. What do you want for breakfast?" Jill said taking her first sip of coffee. "I saw an A&W down the street." said Leon "We can grab a quick bite and head up the mountain for the cave tour." "Leon this is our vacation! We need to sit down and eat together like normal people." Jill said with a sense of urgency in her voice. "We're hardly normal considering we're the only people between peace and the end of the world." Leon said, sarcasm dripping in his voice. "Leon that's why we're on vacation!" Jill said. "Yea, Leon, just relax." Claire yawned, walking into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes. "Good morning." Jill said. "How you feeling?" Leon chimed in. "Hungry! What's for breakfast?" Claire asked. "Well, Leon thinks we should get a quick bite at A&W but I say we either go down to the Dinning Hall or to the Denny's we saw down the street," Jill said suddenly in deep thought, "I think we should go down to the Dinning Hall personally." "I don't care where we go I just want to eat!" urged Claire. "Then let's go see what they have." Jill said going into the bathroom to take a shower.  
  
They were soon done showering and getting ready and headed downstairs. They took the four story decent to the elegant Lounge that led to the Dinning Hall. There was a small alcove where two tables, stacked as high as possible with eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, pancakes, French toast and even cinnamon rolls, had been placed. The three each took a plate and stuffed as much food onto the plate as it could hold and went to one of the many built-for-four tables set up in the football field sized room. "Jeez! I haven't had pancakes this good since I visited my grandma's house last year." Leon managed around a mouthful of pancakes. He was already half way through his first of the many pancakes stacked high on his plate. "I wonder who cooks this stuff," Jill said, "It tastes great."  
  
After they finished breakfast they climbed the narrow road that lead up to the cave. "Hey what's that?" Claire asked pointing up to the cave. They could see blue and red flickering on the evergreen trees above them. "Looks like squad car lights. Let's see what's goin on." Leon said starting to run. "I don't think they need our help Mr. Police Man." Claire declared starting to run along with him. "Sorry. It's instinct." Leon managed behind a grin.  
  
They ran for a couple of minuets and finally reached the cave. Three police cars blocked their entry. Leon walked up to one of the cops on his knees behind his door and knelt beside him. "What's going on?" Leon asked trying to see into the cave. "Please stand back sir." The officer asked. "Its ok. I'm a cop." Leon said hoping the cop would believe him. "Where's your badge?" the officer asked. "I'm a rookie." Leon muttered wishing the department had given him one before the incident in Raccoon City. "I'm training him." Jill said coming to kneel beside the two and handing the officer her badge. "Raccoon city? Wasn't that place blown off the map a few months back?" The officer asked, sounding shocked. "Yes, it was. I was a member of the S.T. A. R. S. team there." She replied. "Well anyways," The officer conveyed, getting back to what was happening. "the ticket taker heard some screams about fifteen minuets ago and no one has come out since. All we have heard is some moans and a hell of a lot of screaming. We can't go in until anyone reveals themselves." The officer said handing Jill her badge back, "We suspect a hostile person is taking the tour group hostage." Some soft moans came from within the cave. "Aren't you glad we didn't go to A&W now Leon? We would be in there." Claire stated from behind him. "Do you know who-" There was another moan from the cave, but much closer. "Come out with your hands above your head!" a cop from the other side of the squad car yelled. When no one came out he shouted it again. "Come out with your-" another moan now joined in. Then another and another and another. Now the only sound was the moans. "Oh god!" Jill said standing up. Leon had spaced it out but it all of the sudden came back to him. Only one word escaped his lips. "Zombies."  
  
They started emerging from the cave one by one. "Oh my god. What's wrong with them? And what smells so bad?" the officer they had talked to said to no one in particular. "Do you have any sidearms we could use?" Jill asked the officer. "Let us handle this ma'am. It's our jurisdiction. " The cop responded. "This isn't any normal stand-off. These people have a type of.cannibal disease!" Claire nearly yelled. "Claire they aren't going to believe us." Leon whispered in her ear. "Please this isn- Freeze!" The zombies were getting closer. "Jill try your lock picks on the trunk." Leon said. "Oh. Keep an eye on them." Jill said running to the back of the car. Claire went back to help Jill. She had the trunk open in a couple of seconds. There was a whole assortment of pistols, rifles, and shotguns. "Here." She said handing a pistol and a rifle to her. "Take these over to Leon. Tell him not to shoot until the officers shoot." Jill said taking out a pistol and tucking it into her coat pocket. Claire ran over and gave Leon the rifle and slid the pistol between his jeans and belt. "And here you go Claire" Jill said giving her an old M93R and four clips for it. "Claire there's a shotgun in the trunk if you want it." Why wouldn't I? Claire thought as she ran to the back and grabbed a Remington from the trunk. Just holding the shotgun brought back memories of the end of her and Leon's first encounters with the zombies. She grabbed all the shells she could hold and ran back to help the others "Freeze or I'll shoot!" One of the officers to her left yelled. "They aren't listening." Claire whispered to herself. "Claire get a bead on the closest zombie on the left." Leon said never taking his eye of the closest zombie. "God! When are these cops gonna take the first shot?" Jill said impatiently. "Why don't we?" Claire asked getting her bead on one rotting monsters. "Because the cops will turn on us." Leon said. "This is your last warning! Stop or I'll shoot." The officers repeated. Just as the officer finished, a zombie broke through the door and hit the ground. "Take this you unholy creature of the devil!" A man from behind them yelled and sliced right through its neck with a large sword, blood spurting on the squad car. Another zombie broke through the line and bite one of the cops lower leg causing dark red blood to spurt all over the zombie. She then decided to take the first shot. Bam! The zombie in front of her dropped to the dirt with a large, bloody circle in the middle of its forehead. She heard several other guns go of as she took aim at another zombie. "Jeez Claire. I think you're a little bit impatient." Leon said aiming at another undead creature. "I'm just eager to get this over with and see if this is a big a problem as Raccoon." She said shooting another zombie in the head, ripping off the right side of its face off.  
  
They all sat together at the Aspen City Hospital. The Chief of Police had already questioned them and was now asking one of the officers what had happened. "They looked like those zombies Stue Cooper keeps rambling about." One of the officers said scratching his head. "Oh, boy. You really expect me to believe that zombie are real and are in our city? " The chief asked putting away his pen. "Well, I expect a full "report" on what happened." "Who's Stue?" Leon asked lifting his head up from the newspaper. "A religious nutcase that lives up on the side of the mountain. He was up there with us." One of the officers said as he sat back to rest. "Was he that tall, skinny, guy that had a big sword?" Jill asked curiously. "Heh. Yea, but its actually a blade welded to a shotgun. He's the only person in town that owns one." The second officer said bending back to look at her. "He thinks those people, or what was left of them, were messengers of God." He said chuckling to himself. "Where exactly does he live?" Jill asked eagerly. "In a red brick house near the middle of the mountain. I'll show if you want." One of the officers offered. "Okay." Jill said jumping out of her chair, motioning for the others to follow.  
  
"Jill why are you so eager to meet this guy? He sounds like nothing but a crazy ol' nut." Claire asked in a whisper. "Most people think we're crazy too" Jill said "and besides we could use another person in our little posse." "But we don't even know him much less trust him!" Claire pleaded. "I know. At least we can't yet but we gotta check it out." Jill grunted out as they took a sharp stop. They had stopped on the side of a mountain. "Why did we stop out here?" Leon asked leaning over to look up the mountain. "This is a landslide zone and I can't go any further in my squad car." The cop said unbuckling his seatbelt. "We have to climb the rest of the way up."  
  
After climbing for a couple of minutes, Leon stepped up on a ledge and was surprised to see a small brick cabin partially hidden behind a group of golden aspen trees. "Is this it?" Leon asked the cop, already starting toward it. "Yea but I wouldn't surprise him or anything. That entire place is one big armory." Claire choose to ignore him and started yelling. "Stue Cooper? Are you there?" One of the windows flew up and a shotgun appeared, pointed at them. "Stue put the gun away." The cop yelled. There was a short pause and the gun was replaced with a middle aged man. "What do you want?" He grumbled. "Well, th-" He started to say, But Jill cut him off "We wanted to talk to you." "Who are you?" the man asked eyeing Claire, Jill, and Leon. "Oh, You were the people up at the cave this morning." He said. "Can we come in?" Claire asked eagerly. "Well," Leon heard a soft click from the door. "Come on in." Leon went in first, followed quickly by Jill and Claire. "Aren't you coming in?" Claire yelled to the cop. "No, thanks, I need to get home. My wife is expecting." The cop said tipping his hat. "Okay. Good luck." Claire yelled back.  
  
The house was a cozy little house, a bit bigger than it looked on the outside. "You folks here to question me or call me a nut?" Stue asked eyeing them suspiciously. "Well, we wanted to ask you a few questions. If we-" He cut Jill off. "Some cops already came up. I told them what happened." "Well we aren't with the cops." Leon said. "We just wanted to ask you about the zombies." Claire said as if she were talking casually about clothes with a girlfriend. "So, you think they are creatures of the devil too." Stue said sitting down on a recliner. "Well, we know what they are. We have had to deal with them before." Jill said. "They are or were, humans who are victims of a virus created by Umbrella Inc." Leon summarized. "Well, I never really like medicine companies but are you sure?" Stue asked rubbing the stubble of hair growing on his chin. "We have proof they created the virus but no one believes us." Claire said, starting to think they could get Stue on their side. When Stue didn't respond Claire started to lose hope. "Well, tell me when I can help and how." Three pairs of eyes shot wide open with that comment. "R-really?" Claire stuttered. "Yea. Whoever is behind this needs to quit playing god." Stue announced.  
  
That's it for Chapter 1. I'm in the process of getting Chapter 2 completed and ready to be posted. Hope to see you back soon. =] 


End file.
